11-year-old Instagram star Lil Tay went silent for months, and now there's a secret battle brewing to control her future

Lil Tay in "Life With Lil Tay," a short-lived docuseries about her life on The Zeus Network.
The Zeus Network

Lil Tay, a controversial 11-year-old influencer with 2.5 million Instagram followers, is caught in a struggle between her family members, manager, and music promoter over control of her brand.

She disappeared from the internet in June after a video surfaced in which a voice, which people speculated to be her brother's, can be heard feeding her lines from behind the camera.

Behind the scenes, her father, manager, and music promoter want her to focus on her music career.

But they don't see eye-to-eye with her mother and brother, who currently have her in their care.

The private battle recently appeared to get dirtier when the person controlling Lil Tay's Instagram made lurid accusations about her father — posts that were deleted the same day.

The Instagram star's future remains uncertain.

A preteen Instagram star with more than 2.5 million followers has been all but silent since June.

Eleven-year-old social media phenom Lil Tay garnered attention for her brash on-screen persona and braggadocio. Lil Tay was simultaneously celebrated and reviled for her curse-laden monologues, controversial collaborations, and beefs with other Instagrammers. But she disappeared from the internet earlier this year after a video leaked in which a voice, which people speculated to be her brother's, can be heard feeding her lines from behind the camera. And now, it seems, there's a private battle over the future of her career.

In one corner is her manager, Harry Tsang; her father, Christopher Hope; and her promoter, Chris Jones, who works with Lil Tay on her music career. The three want to streamline the operation around her brand and focus on music and branching out to platforms like video app TikTok.

In the other corner are Lil Tay's mother and brother, Angela and Jason Tian, who have been instrumental in cultivating the Lil Tay persona. They currently live with Lil Tay in Vancouver, British Columbia.

Though people close to Lil Tay have said there is a plan to relaunch and pivot her career, it won't work unless the two sides come to an agreement. And their feud appeared to erupt again Monday, when a series of now deleted posts on Lil Tay's Instagram account made lurid accusations about the preteen's father.

According to Tsang, Jason Tian, a teenager, currently controls her account.

"Jason is saying he's the one who created Lil Tay. If he's the one who created Lil Tay, he can destroy Lil Tay," Tsang told INSIDER. "Lil Tay belongs with him. That's how he thinks."

Lil Tay is a polarizing Instagram presence — but she's incredibly popular

Lil Tay, who first became known in 2015, made waves with her in-your-face, potty-mouthed persona. Billed as a brash 7-year-old (she was actually 9 at the time, according to Tsang, Hope, and Jones), Lil Tay, whose real name is Claire Hope, boasted about the mansions, cars, and bundles of cash she said belonged to her.

Lil Tay flexing about apparently owning a Ferrari. Lil Tay/YouTube

In her videos, she dubbed herself "the youngest flexer of the century" — "flexer" being an Instagram influencer's version of a showoff — and rapidly gained a following for her bravado, aggressive swearing, and feuds and partnerships with other young influencers. She rocketed to fame and shook up the influencer scene, landing her collaborations with major names like Jake Paul.

Lil Tay grew her account to more than 2.5 million followers, but her success had consequences for her family: Her mother reportedly left her real estate firm after it discovered she had used her boss's car and the company's rental homes in Lil Tay's videos without permission.

At the time, reporters raised questions about her care. Who was looking after her? Was she going to school? Why haven't the adults around her been more forthcoming? Her representatives didn't address those questions at the time, but Tsang told INSIDER that she's currently homeschooled by a tutor.

In June, a leaked video put her career in turmoil

In a viral leaked video, a voice people speculated to be Jason Tian's — who is also known as Jingxian Sun — can be heard feeding her several bombastic lines. Lil Tay can be seen struggling to imitate the cadences and phrases of a bonafide "flexer." The video supported the impression that Lil Tay's internet persona was manufactured, and that older people around her manipulated her to profit off her influencer career.

After the video spread, Lil Tay's Instagram page was wiped. Diomi Cordero, Lil Tay's manager at the time, told reporters she would be rebranding her image but didn't offer additional details.

Later in June, Lil Tay's Instagram account published a post that memorialized XXXTentacion, a 20-year-old rapper shot and killed in Miami, and referred to him as a "father figure." Before he was murdered, the rapper was awaiting trial on charges of beating and strangling his pregnant girlfriend. Lil Tay and XXXTentacion were planning a charity event together, according to the post.

The account posted a screenshot of Lil Tay in a video chat with XXXTentacion. Lil Tay/Instagram

In July, Lil Tay's Instagram account posted a cryptic message that said "Help me," contributing to a narrative that Lil Tay was in danger.

Also on Monday, The Blast published a copy of a cease-and-desist letter Hope had sent to Instagram asking the platform to remove the posts. The letter called the posts "patently and provably false."

The Instagram posts were deleted later that day.

Hope didn't respond to multiple requests for comment. A representative for the Vancouver-based law firm where Hope works, Lindsay LLP, declined INSIDER's requests for comment. A representative for Instagram declined to comment. INSIDER was unable to reach either Angela or Jason Tian.

Lil Tay's manager says it was all a lie

Tsang and Jones told INSIDER that the claims made in the Instagram posts are false. Tsang said the posts were a lurid invention meant to wrest away control over the narrative of Lil Tay's career. He maintained that Lil Tay's brother still controls her Instagram account.

In his own Instagram videos, Tsang expressed his feelings that Angela and Jason Tian irresponsibly handled Lil Tay's career and exploited her for profit. He said the two were "unstable."

"They are standing in the way of Lil Tay's career," he said in a video. "Chris has also never asked for money. And all we want for Lil Tay is to be successful and live a happy life."

Tsang told INSIDER that he hopes to form a legal agreement with Lil Tay's parents to create a formal structure over the influencer's career. He wants to put 25% of her gross income into a trust that she can access when she turns 19, in accordance with Canada's Protecting Child Performers Act. And he said he wants Angela and Jason Tian to stop making videos in which Lil Tay swears and acts irresponsibly.

"As Lil Tay's manager, I cannot stand by to witness Jason and Angela to ruin Tay's career as well as her well-being," he said in a video. "I also cannot stand by as they destroy Chris Hope's career because they have differences."

Jason Tian, Lil Tay's older brother. The Zeus Network

When INSIDER reached out to Angela and Jason Tian through their shared email account, the person responding to emails said Tsang was lying about being Lil Tay's manager. "There is currently no manager in place, just a small group of people in her circle trying to help guide her in the right direction," they wrote.

The person offered to set up a phone call to "clarify all these claims being made online," but then stopped replying to INSIDER's emails.

Lil Tay's manager and music producer have a plan to put her career back on track

Despite the messy state of Lil Tay's influencer career, Tsang and Jones see a path for a comeback.

In her docuseries, Lil Tay expressed interest in making rap music, and Jones and Tsang want to push her in that direction. Jones said he's already recorded a few tracks with her and is working on a larger body of work.

Lil Tay recording music in "Life With Lil Tay." The Zeus Network

"She's recording music right now," Jones told INSIDER. "My only thing is to make sure Lil Tay's music career is on a positive note, aiming for longevity. That is my goal."

Tsang wants to put Lil Tay on music-focused social media platforms like TikTok, which has successfully launched the careers of other young online personalities. He said he already has several collaborative projects with other influencers in the works, including people who have a major presence on TikTok.

"I already organized a lot of collaborations between Tay and other influencers," he told INSIDER. "Lil Tay is going to come back really soon. … Things will be getting better from here."